Dental Visit, Dodgeville Visit & Dinner With Friends

Monday morning we had business to attend to…dentist kind of business…ugh. We left the house about 7:15 am and headed south on 23 to Spring Green where our old dentist is located. We’d had a check up done while we were in Texas and each needed a little work done and since they couldn’t get us in at the office in Texas we decided to visit the dentist we saw while we lived in this area.

Dr. Craig Koslica

We arrived at Village Family Dental about 8:15, 15 minutes before our scheduled appointment. They’d asked us to arrive early to verify that the information they had on file was still up to date. We were called back shortly after sitting down.

Michael behaving like the model patient

I am a big chicken when it comes to going to the dentist so if I have any work to do Michael normally goes back with me…if it’s really major Dr. Koslica always prescribed a Valium to take before the appointment. Today’s work wasn’t extensive, just 2 tiny fillings so just having Michael next to me was sufficient.

Michael also had 2 small cavities that needed work as well as 2 small chips in his front teeth that Dr. Koslica fixed for him.

Dr. Koslica just returned 3 days before from a 3 week vacation in Alaska so he was fresh and ready to work…thank goodness! We caught him up to date as to where our lives have gone since we last saw him 5 years ago when we moved to Montgomery, Alabama and he filled us in on his family as well.

Our work was complete and we paid our bill and were on our way just about 10:00 am.

We continued heading south on highway 23 to Dodgeville, our home from September 1999 to September 2009. This was Michael first assignment as an Active Guard Reserve (AGR) soldier. Dodgeville is a small town of roughly 4,000 people.

Sitting on a bench enjoy donuts!

We were both in need of a little snack so we drove down Main Street, stopping at Quality Bakery and each picked out a donut. We sat outside on a bench in front of the store enjoying our treat and watching the pedestrian and street traffic pass by.

Lands End Inlet – Dodgeville WI

We stopped at the Lands End inlet store on Main Street, as well, as I was in search of a new swimsuit. I found one on the Not Quite Perfect rack for a fraction of the original cost. The top and bottom are sold separately with the top original $79 and the shorts $$39…however, I got them for $17.50 each. The suit will work well for next weekend when were are at the Great Wolf Lodge with the New York Barnett’s celebrating Ben’s first birthday as well as our cruise next May.

Dodgeville is home to Lands End and has been since 1978. I consider myself lucky enough to worked for Lands End from 2001 until we moved to Alabama in 2009. The company truly knows how to treat their customers as well as their employees.

Home for sale

We drove past our old home on Jamie Street and found that it was for sale for roughly the same price we sold it for 5 years ago. It didn’t look like it had changed much or many (if any) improvements had been made. Michael built a wonderful deck on the back not long before we moved and it didn’t look like it had been painted or sealed….what a shame.

US Army Reserve Center

We stopped by the Army Reserve Center where Michael worked for 10 years and found just one soldier that was there when he left. Another is currently deployed to Afghanistan. We had a nice visit and also chatted with the current motorpool and supply sergeants. It was interesting to find out that the motorpool sergeant lives on the same street we used to live on.

We had planned to have lunch at Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ as we’ve heard really good things about the place but found it to be closed on Monday’s….bummer! We settled for a new place right next door called the Cobblestone Cafe. We found it to be a near duplicate of the Cook’s Room which is nearly across the street. They serve mostly sandwiches, bakery and assorted coffee’s. It was ok…but we prefer the Cook’s Room.

We drove around town checking to see what had changed and found that everything was pretty much the same as it had been when we moved away. We drove past the middle school and high school where both of our boys, as well as our youngest daughter in law, attended and graduated.

Get some cheese curds TODAY!

We stopped at Schurman’s Cheese outlet store and picked up some cheese curds. If you’ve never had any…you must try them and be sure that they squeak when you chew them cuz if they don’t….they’re not fresh!

Hard at working trying to tame my unruly curls

Our last stop in Dodgeville was at A Touch Above salon where Brenda cut my hair for several years before we moved away. I have not been able to get a decent hair cut in 5 years so several months ago I contacted Brenda and made an appointment. It was time for a change…something easy and that doesn’t need to be styled. I have naturally curly hair so we decided on lots of layers to let the curls pop.

Brenda has twins, Danielle and Ian, who are the same age as our son Dan. Danielle surprised me by popping into the salon so that we could visit briefly too.

We left Dodgeville about 3:00 pm headed back to Lake Delton. We made a quick stop at a roadside stand that was selling sweet corn for $2 a dozen. We picked up a dozen and split it with our friends Jay and Stella when we got back to the campground.

We got home about 4:15 and dropped the corn off with Jay & Stella. We decided to got out for dinner and try the Pizza Ranch as we’d been told by friends over the weekend that it was reasonable and tasty too.

We were all pleased with the food on the buffet – a large salad bar with soups, assorted pizzas, fried chicken, assorted potatoes choices as well as vegetables. To top it off there were several dessert pizzas and ice cream too. For $9.49 per person for an all you can eat dinner, we’d go again.

We were home about 7:30, thought about having a campfire but it was spitting and sputtering out so we all just chose to go home and call it a night.